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Griffin stepped out of a late-night coffee shop and waved goodbye to her friends. She figured it'd be best for her to get back home and hit the books for upcoming finals. She actually had been at a study group for one subject and needed to study for another. She sighed, but felt good about her classwork for the moment. She walked along the empty streets, clutching the henshin pen in her pocket. She'd never forget it again, not after last time. Of course, getting attacked by youma was a good way to meet people, but not Griffin's preferred way.

She was passing by an alley, repeating her propensity for wandering around dangerously at night, when she heard something. The jingling of metal? Her head snapped around and her eyes were wide with anxiety.
She expected the worst and clutched at her pen, but what she saw was a boy.

Oh.

That still didn't mean he was safe, though. "Uhm, hi." She spoke nervously, because she thought it'd be more awkward to just stop, stare, and walk away. She sized him up and noticed how strangely he was dressed. He wasn't a senshi... But she didn't think he was part of the Negaverse either. How odd!

Griffin tilted her head ever so slightly. A page, huh? Oh! She'd met a page before! One had saved her from a youma. Though initially she'd been wary of his offer, as the bell warning of stranger danger went off in her head, but that he was a page changed a lot of things. The girl returned his smile, and still holding the pen in her pocket, she thought to say 'no'.

However, this was a great opportunity for her to talk to another page and another individual fighting for good. She looked him up and down again and curtseyed. "That would be rather kind of you, good sir!" If Griffin had been worried about walking home at night before, she wasn't now. With a page and her pen, they'd be set if they were attacked by anything, or anyone. She'd just dart off, power up, and boom! Good conquers over evil!

Smile still on her face, she said, "My name is Griffin. It's nice to meet you."

Griffin grinned, she liked being called a lady. She nodded, knowing quite well how Destiny City was. A good place to live with good people, but it had its darker side, sure. But didn't every city? She supposed that Destiny City was admittedly darker than most. As they began to walk along, she kept her hands in her pocket, one on her pen, but she was relaxed.

She nodded her head and said, "Well thank you very much for walking me home, Mister Nifhel." What an unusual name and title, but she didn't have much room to talk as 'Sailor Maenalus, Senshi of Mountains.'

Casually, she kicked at a pebble and glanced up to see how many stars were out. "Oh, I was just at a study group at a coffee shop with some of my friends. Finals are coming up, you know. My first one is next week. I was ready to go but they weren't so I thought I'd head back to my dorm. I go to Shlip, by the way, it's not too far from here." Of course, to Griffin, not a lot was 'too far' to walk and though she had a car, she almost always opted to walk, if not for the exercise, but then for the things you get to see longer while walking and the interesting people you can meet. Take Niflhel, for example. He was very interesting.

"So what's it like, being a page?" She looked at him with her big blue's, quite interested. A senshi was one thing but a page was a horse of a different color entirely.

Griffin laughed softly. He was right, he was awfully young to be a mister. She nodded enthusiastically when he talked of the coffee shop. It was her favorite one in the city and she was lucky that it was convenient to walk to and open late. True, she didn't really like coffee from anywhere, but she liked the smell and she liked the atmosphere of the modest café.

Kicking a pebble as she walked, she looked at him from the corner of her eyes and chuckled, "You lucky dog."

She tilted her head as he told her about being a page. Her civilian alter-ego told her that she didn't really know what being a senshi was like, either. In truth, she was still new to it, so it was at least a half-truth. Come to think of it, she was taking the concept of someone with an air of magic about them all in stride, like it was no big deal. She'd taken up learning hand to hand combat, or at least a general act of kicking and punching because she wasn't so keen on knowing when or how to use her magical attack.
Ha. A person using magic. Thinking about it, she just felt like a pokémon. How silly! But what Niflhel had to say was interesting.

He'd mentioned a weapon and now she was curious about what it was. Was it responsible for the soft jingling with each step he took? "Oh, what is your weapon?" She leaned in a little bit closer to see what it was.

Griffin shrugged. To each their own, she supposed. It wasn't that she didn't want finals ever, but she would have rather gotten them all over with sooner rather than feeling them loom and slowly creep up on her. If only it was summer time. Sure, she loved her school and the friends she made there, but she was ready for endless free time. Then she could go on all those hiking and camping trips she'd been planning and dying to do! Summer time was Griffin's time. Walking along, she sighed.

He pulled out his chain and she looked on with interest. 'Not special' her butt. Here he was fighting evil by moonlight. What was more special than that!? Well, maybe Indiana Jones. "It seems useful." She tried to offer optimism for his practicality. It was better than having to resort to close combat, at least in her opinion. Well, maybe a knife would be better.

"Have you ever had to fight a bad guy?" Good job with not saying Negaverse, Griffin, she thought to herself. A civilian probably wouldn't know that term, right?

Griffin could understand that, sure. Sometimes she had to be careful around her own magical attacks. Presently it was pretty weak, but because her uniform included heels (she didn't know who designed it, it seemed like a pretty big flaw) she could get caught up in it too and had nearly twisted an ankle once or twice.

"Ah, oh yeah, I think I've heard that term before." Griffin just kept playing dumb. Well, a little bit dumb. She'd only run into Negaverse agents once, in the battle after prom, and she hadn't been alone then in the least bit, and the only attack she'd suffered from one of them was a brick to the shin. Also, her memory from that night was a bit fuzzy... how strange...

In the mean time, she nodded. "Yeah, me too." Realistically she probably wouldn't, assuming she didn't forget her henshin pen again. "I haven't met one yet and I kinda hope I don't ever." She laughed, but it was a little bit forced. Maybe because she flat out lied about never having met a Negaverse agent. She'd have to meet more eventually, or else she probably wasn't a very good senshi. A good senshi kicked a lot of Negaverse butt, right?

As they walked, the surroundings grew more and more familiar. They weren't back to her dorm yet, but they only had another few minutes of walking until they were back to Griffin's dorm. A shame, almost. She found this talk really interesting.

Griffin had only met a sprinkle of Negaverse agents, but she wouldn't consider any of them... Nice. She could believe that they weren't all the worst people in the city. Although... some might be. She wondered if he had met them while he was powered up or if he had been a civilian when running into them. She felt that it there could be a difference between meeting someone who wasn't on either side - or could be convinced to join yours, versus someone who was destined to fight against you. Griffin simply typecast all Negaverse agents as mean people who try to steal your starseed and those of the innocents. She listened in silence. He was entitled to his opinion, and maybe she would agree later when she had met more agents.

As she thought, they entered Shlip's campus and the area became better lit and more people could seen milling about. Even if she hadn't been a senshi walking with a page, she probably would be safe by now even if she was headed home alone. "Ah, thanks so much for walking me home, Niflhel. I really appreciate it." Griffin gave a genuine smile and really was thankful. Nothing bad had happened and maybe that was because she'd had a page with her, or maybe it was just luck. Either way, she was glad. And glad to have met Niflhel.